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Hello, everybody, and welcome to
today's video, which will be the

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second of our series of three classes
on the First Amendment.

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Today's video will be a particular
one if we compare it to last week's

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video and next week's video.

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The reason I'm saying that is that
last week's video was entirely

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about one of the two categories
of freedoms protected by the First

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Amendment, freedom of speech.

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And next week's video will be about
the second category of freedoms,

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religious liberty.

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This week's video, on the other hand,
will be a sort of in between because

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we will finish studying freedom
of speech and then we will start

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studying religious freedom.

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So it will be a video about both
of the categories of freedoms protected

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by the First Amendment.

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All right.

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Let's dive in and talk about freedom
of speech.

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Last week, we studied one of the
five freedoms protected by this

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category, which was freedom of
speech itself.

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Today, we have to talk about the
other four.

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So once again, freedom of the press,
freedom of assembly,

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the right to petition and freedom
of association.

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Let's start with freedom of the press.

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It makes sense that freedom of
the press would be protected by

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the First Amendment.

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Remember, I told you several times
already that the objective of the

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entire Bill of Rights was to protect
democracy and make sure that the

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US could never be turned into a
dictatorship.

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Well, if you want a democracy,
you absolutely need a free press.

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It's actually one of the easiest
ways to know if a country is a

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democracy, a country that has a
free press, is probably a democracy.

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Whereas a country where the press
is controlled by the government

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is likely to be some form of a
dictatorship.

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The founding fathers knew that,
and they used the First Amendment

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to make sure that the American
press would be completely free

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to criticize the government and
could not be controlled by the

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government.

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The easiest way to help you understand
how large freedom of the press

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is in the US is to tell you that
freedom of the press is basically

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freedom of speech for journalists.

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Remember last week I told you that
the American version of freedom

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of speech is the largest in the
world and that American citizens

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can say pretty much everything
they want.

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Well, the same thing can be said
about journalists.

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They can write pretty much everything
they want.

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And the Supreme Court considers
that freedom of the press is indeed

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as large as freedom of speech.

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Now, let's immediately address
the question of libel,

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what we call "diffamation" in France.

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Libel does exist in the US,
but it is so hard to win a libel

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case in the United States,
especially against a journalist,

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that libel isn't really a limit
on what journalists can do.

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The next right we have to talk
about is the right to petition,

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which is also protected by the
First Amendment.

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Citizens have the right to petition
their government, which means you

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can send letters to the government.

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But it also means that lobbying
is absolutely legal in the US.

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You can also sue the government
in front of the courts if you think

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the government has harmed you in
any way.

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Obviously the right to demonstrate
is also protected by the First

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Amendment, which describes it as
the right to, quote,

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"peaceably assemble".

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End of quote.

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Remember last week when I was trying
to explain to you how large the

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US version of freedom of speech is?

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I used the example of Nazis
demonstrating in a Jewish neighborhood

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in 1977.

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I told you that the reason why
the Supreme Court authorized this

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demonstration was the protection
of freedom of speech,

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which is true.

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But those Nazis were also protected
by the right to demonstrate, the

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right to peaceably assemble.

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In other words, their demonstration,
as shocking as it was,

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was protected by two different
constitutional rights,

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freedom of speech and freedom of
assembly.

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By the way, this is also the reason
why the demonstration of white

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supremacists in Charlottesville,
Virginia, in August 2017 could

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not be stopped by the government.

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It was also protected by the
Constitution, by the First Amendment.

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Any attempt by the authorities
to prevent this demonstration from

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taking place

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would have been unconstitutional.

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The last right related to freedom
of speech that we have to talk

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about is freedom of association,
also known as freedom of expressive

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association.

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This one is pretty particular because
of all the rights protected by

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the First Amendment,

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it is the only one that is not
explicitly written in the text

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of the First Amendment.

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But the Supreme Court considers
that this right of expressive

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association is implicitly protected
by the Constitution,

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even though it is not explicitly
mentioned in it.

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This right means that American
citizens have the right to gather

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with members of a group with whom
they share certain ideas.

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So typically, political parties,
unions,

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ET cetera.

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All right.

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We are officially done talking
about freedom of speech and we

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can now move on to the second category
of rights contained in the First

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Amendment: Religious freedom.

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The first thing I'd like to do
is to help you understand how important

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religious freedom was to the Founding
Fathers.

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Last week I told you that we can
at least think that the First Amendment

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contains the most important rights
of American citizens because it

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is the First Amendment,
because it is on top of the list,

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so to speak.

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Well, go back to the actual text
of the First Amendment.

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It starts with, quote,
"Congress shall make no law respecting

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an establishment of religion or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof",

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end of quote.

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In other words, religious freedom
is the first right protected by

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the First Amendment.

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So we can at least make the argument
that the Founding Fathers considered

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it as the most important right
to protect.

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So why was religious freedom so
important that it had to be the

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first right protected by the Bill
of Rights?

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In order to understand that,
you have to go back to the history

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of the United States

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before it was the United States.

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America, of course, used to be
a British colony, and many of the

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people who were there before
independence were British citizens

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who had fled Great Britain.

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And one of the main,
if not the main reason why they

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decided to flee their country
to go to America, was religious

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persecution.

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If you didn't have the same religion
as the king or the queen,

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life wasn't really pleasant in
Great Britain at the time. Because

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of that, when Americans became
independent and they had to create

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their own political system,
one of their absolute priorities

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was to make sure that religious
persecution could never become

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a reality in their new country.

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Americans would be completely free
to have any religion they wanted

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or to have no religion at all if
they didn't want to.

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The other reason why protecting
religious freedom was so important

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to the Founding Fathers is once
again the fact that they wanted

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to make sure that the US would
always remain a democracy.

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Human history is full of examples
of politicians and leaders who

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used religion to create dictatorships
known as theocracies. The Founding

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Fathers didn't want that to happen,

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and so they saw religious freedom
as a central element of a democratic

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system.

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If you want to establish religious
freedom, you need to make sure

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that people enjoy freedom of religion,

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but also freedom from religion.

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That is the reason why the First
Amendment has not one but two clauses

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about religious freedom.

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The first one is called the
Establishment clause,

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and it reads, quote,
"Congress shall make no law respecting

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an establishment of religion",
end of quote.

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This clause means that Congress
(so the government) does not have

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the right to establish an official
religion.

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The US cannot have an official
religion, and since the First Amendment

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was entirely incorporated,
individual states cannot have an

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official religion either.

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The objective is pretty obvious here:

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If the government can establish
an official religion,

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then you have no religious freedom
because the government can force

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you to believe in that particular

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religion or even favor people who
believe in that particular religion

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over people who don't.

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That is why the Establishment Clause
of the First Amendment is here

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to make sure that the government
stays out of the business of religion

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altogether.

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The second religious clause of
the First Amendment is called the

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Free Exercise Clause,
and it reads, quote,

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"or prohibit the free exercise thereof";

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end of quote.

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The words are pretty clear here:
Just like it cannot establish an

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official religion,

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Congress cannot prevent people
from exercising their own religion

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freely.

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These two clauses together make
sure that in the US,

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religion is a freedom but not an
obligation.

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The government could not force
you to abandon your religion,

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and it cannot force
you to adopt a new one.

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In next week's video,
we will get into the details of

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the two religious clauses,
the Establishment Clause and the

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Free Exercise Clause.

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That's it for today.

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Thank you and see you next week.